LIVING ROOM’S OPEN DOOR

As you read this, why not imagine the Jesus we believe in today as the living and breathing person he once was, joining us in our world? Could you imagine what it would be to spend time with him as he did his ministry—as one of his disciples perhaps?

To truly know Jesus, it would help if we could picture him in human form.  While in the world he was as one of us, having needs like we have: feeling hunger, tiredness, pain and grief. Trying to see him like this would help us truly appreciate him. It would enrich our understanding and intensify our love for him.

What would it have been like to talk with him, to eat meals with him, to walk from town to town with him? Imagine hearing him tell his parables firsthand. How would his voice have sounded? Authoritative? . . . Perhaps. I suspect, gentle at other times.

What would he have said to you as you walked side by side with him? He would most likely be a good listener when you had troubling things to talk over. Would he, like a close friend, have put his arm over your shoulder?

Around the fire at night might you and the other disciples join with Jesus to relax for fun and laughter? Surely, Jesus, as one of us, would have laughed. What did Jesus’ laughter sound like? Was it the contagious kind, him starting, and joyousness spreading throughout the group? How delightful it would have been to be part of that!

. . . Or at other times, might the evenings around the fire have been time for quiet talk—about life and how we felt about it . . . About what Jesus had come into the world to do?

Imagine standing next to Jesus as he healed the blind, the crippled, the lepers. Imagine being there to see how well he treated those the world looked down on and stigmatized. He showed us how to care about them and respect them.

Remember the story about how Jesus joined with those who were grieving the death of Lazarus? Jesus felt their pain and had compassion. He wept alongside them. If you were to spend such time with Jesus you too would witness the great love and compassion he has for hurting people . . .  for people like you and me.

I’m wondering how spending time with Jesus two thousand years ago might have changed me . . . How I would have loved to learn his kind of love and humility first-hand! But he can still teach us—even now. We can still spend time with Jesus—even today. He can always be our friend.

We can learn from him. Though he lived so long ago as a person who people could love and touch, his Spirit can live on through us—through those who believe in him and want to follow his example..

marja